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Dream Bike Transformation

Love your bike but not head over heals about the paint work? A custom finish may be for you!

It’s no secret that most paint jobs on stock bikes tend to be a little uninspiring. They have to appeal to the masses, and to try to keep as many people as possible happy, brands can’t get too creative with their designs. In fact, I doubt that there’s a single cyclist who hasn’t wanted their own custom paint job on their pride and joy at some point.

When it comes to custom painting bikes, Velocraft are absolute masters at what they do. They are a Victoria-based company that custom paints frames, ranging from a simple respray, to a complex multi-coloured design, like what we’ve recently had them do.

Steve Gardner worked for 23 years as a painter in the automotive industry, but after losing his passion for cars, he saw an opportunity to align with another one of his passions, cycling. Starting as a side hustle in 2016 called ‘Bikes By Steve’, the brand rapidly expanded and was renamed ‘Velocraft’ in 2019, where he, his partner Tanya, and his team work their magic on bikes. Velocraft now operates out of a factory in Boronia, and gives cyclists the opportunity to turn their bikes into pieces of art that stand out from the crowd. They are recommended paint work repairers for both Specialized and Trek, showing trust from the biggest brands in cycling.

To best showcase Velocraft’s service, we collaborated on an extremely unique (and flashy) paint job. Our friends at Chapter 2 here in Australia helped us source a raw KOKO, their aerodynamic performance road frame, along with a MANA2 one-piece cockpit.

End-to-end, the process is always unique, and rarely are two paint jobs the same. Basic 2-colour resprays with Velocraft start at $1,400, with the turnaround usually being 3-5 weeks.

Design

The first step in the process is to have a discussion with Steve regarding the design and colours. Basic renders can be done internally, but for more complex ones, they recommend Design by Twain, who helped visualise my crazy ideas for a paint job.

With a few vague ideas in my mind, but unsure about how to put that into a design, I was lost. I reached out to Twain, a graphic designer who helps people create the perfect paint job for their bike. On initial consult, we discussed what ideas I had in mind for this design. With little to go off, I was tasked with making a mood board detailing what springs to mind when thinking of a custom paint job. Twain then got to work on a few designs. With one standing out, we made a few adjustments before the final decision.

Booking

When the design was confirmed, we booked this in with Tanya, agreeing on a date and price for the job. As I am NSW-based, I had to safely get the frame to Velocraft.

Assessment

Once the frame arrived at Velocraft, it was assessed for any damage. Luckily, being a brand new frame and being handled by a reputable courier, there were no issues.

Paint Removal

For painted frames the Velocraft team will next go through the process of removing the current paint. Luckily for this job, the frame came ‘raw’, meaning it had never been painted.

Priming, Prepping, Painting

The frame was then primed, prepped, and painted. When I initially showed Steve and Tanya the design, they noted how complex the job would be, but they loved the idea of making it happen. With the light grey base priming on the frame, Steve set out to bring this design to life, working with numerous colours and using unique painting techniques. Matching the shifting colours on the fork, seatpost, cockpit, and even spacers would have been a painful task, but with years of expertise, Steve had no issues perfecting this.

Logos

The logos are then carefully added to the frame. For this job, we stuck to factory Chapter 2 brand specifications, but the possibilities here are endless. I’ve even seen someone change their ‘Giant’ downtube logos to ‘Small’.

Finishing Touches

Once the team were happy with the job, the frame was given a final clear coat and polish, before being photographed and couriered back to me.

When asking Tanya and Steve what they enjoy most about their work, they noted that they love the ability to be creative, but most importantly, they get a real kick out of seeing customers’ reactions when frames are collected. While they were unable to see my reaction when the frame arrived, they would have loved my jaw to the floor reaction.

The end result is unbelievable. When we committed to this design, I was expecting the finished frame to resemble the render, but not to the millimetre, as I just didn’t think it was possible. Comparing the final render to the finished frame, I could not believe how well it came out. Steve and his team are truly masters at their craft!

Images: Mason Hender (masonhender.com).

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